U.S. Attorney Bharara Defends India Diplomat Strip-Search

Devyani Khobragade, who works in India’s consulate general in New York, attends the India Studies Stony Brook University fund raiser event in Long Island, New York, on Dec. 8, 2013. Photographer: Mohammed Jaffer/SnapsIndia via AP Photo

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. prosecutor who triggered an
uproar with India over the arrest of diplomat Devyani Khobragade
last week defended the charges and strip-search, saying she
knowingly tried to evade U.S. law.

“It is true that she was fully searched by a female Deputy
Marshal -- in a private setting -- when she was brought into the
U.S. Marshals’ custody, but this is standard practice for every
defendant, rich or poor, American or not, in order to make sure
that no prisoner keeps anything on his person that could harm
anyone, including himself,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet
Bharara said in a three-page statement yesterday. “This is in
the interests of everyone’s safety.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday sought to mend
ties with India over the incident, expressing his regret in a
call to Indian National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon to
convey “his concern that we not allow this unfortunate public
issue to hurt our close and vital relationship with India,” the
State Department said in a statement. Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh described her arrest as “deplorable.”

Mounting tensions threaten to damage what has otherwise
been a decade of collaboration between the world’s two biggest
democracies as they deepen trade and defense ties and strengthen
cooperation to fight terrorism. India removed concrete security
barricades outside of the U.S. embassy in New Delhi, canceled
airport passes for American diplomats and froze import requests
to retaliate over Khobragade’s arrest.

‘Unprecedented Treatment’

“This is unprecedented treatment of an Indian diplomat; a
slap in the face to the country,” said G. Parthasarathy, a
retired Indian diplomat posted in Washington during former
President Jimmy Carter’s administration. “Over the last two
decades the public perception of the U.S. has been very positive.
The transformation has been remarkable, and that will be hurt.”

While Kerry said that foreign diplomats in the U.S. should
be “accorded respect and dignity just as we expect our own
diplomats should receive overseas,” he stopped short of an
apology and stressed the importance of enforcing U.S. laws. Jay
Carney, the White House press secretary, said yesterday that the
U.S. has “conveyed at high levels to the government of India
our expectations” that American diplomats will be protected.

Bharara, who won the largest insider trading case in U.S.
history last month, said Khobragade submitted a false visa
application for an employee who was to work as her housekeeper
and babysitter, and paid her “far below” minimum wage. He
called legal action initiated against the housekeeper in India
an attempt to silence her.

Food, Coffee

“There can be no plausible claim that this case was
somehow unexpected or an injustice,” Bharara, a U.S. citizen
who was born in India, said in the statement. “This Office’s
sole motivation in this case, as in all cases, is to uphold the
rule of law, protect victims, and hold accountable anyone who
breaks the law -- no matter what their societal status and no
matter how powerful, rich or connected they are.”

Bharara said Khobragade was given courtesies not normally
accorded to other defendants and wasn’t arrested in front of her
children as had been reported. He said agents let her make phone
calls from a car for about two hours, brought her coffee and
offered to get her food.

Khobragade, who works in India’s consulate general in New
York, was arrested in front of her daughter’s school on Dec. 12
and then strip-searched while in the custody of U.S. Marshals at
a federal courthouse in downtown Manhattan, according to Daniel
Arshack, her lawyer. She was presented before a U.S. magistrate
judge and released later the same day.

‘Embarrassing Failure’

“Dr. Khobragade is protected from prosecution by virtue of
her diplomatic status,” Arshack said in an e-mail, calling the
incident “a significant error in judgment and an embarrassing
failure of U.S. international protocol.”

Khobragade, who also had the title of diplomat for women’s
affairs, has been transferred to a position at India’s United
Nations mission in New York from her consular role to give her
great diplomatic immunity, the Press Trust of India reported
yesterday, without citing anyone for the information. Marie Harf,
a State Department spokeswoman, said the U.S. hasn’t received
the required notification of such a transfer.

Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid told India’s parliament
yesterday that Khobragade’s housekeeper-babysitter blackmailed
her for money and U.S. legal residency. Khobragade’s pleas for
help to the New York Police Department were never taken
seriously, he said.

“Our sense as a nation, as a people and as human beings is
that what has happened is totally and entirely unacceptable,”
Khurshid said. “I will bring her back and restore her dignity.
I will do it and show you all.”

The visa fraud charge against Khobragade carries a maximum
penalty of 10 years in prison, if she’s convicted, according to
Bharara’s office. The maximum for the false statements charge is
five years.

She was required to surrender her travel documents and
ordered to remain in the U.S. She was barred from contacting the
employee, whom prosecutors referred to in their complaint as
“Witness-1.”

The case is U.S. v. Khobragade, 13-mj-02870, U.S. District
Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).